Dystopia
by annabel-lee1
Summary: If Utopia was so awful, why was Pheobe's premonition so beautiful?
1. Dystopia Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't owned Charmed. I know, you're all shocked.

Big thanks to TWOP. Demian's fabulous recaps were invaluable.

Feedback is awesome. So, please be awesome and leave me reviews. Thanks!

Here endeth the Author's Note. I'm trying to put in spacers, but the site doesn't seem to like them.

* * *

It was a typical Monday morning whirlwind in the Halliwell manor. Piper had gotten Wyatt and Chris dressed and fed, and then re-dressed. Giving each of them a kiss, she handed them over to their Aunt Paige. "Have a good day at school, Paige," she said, already turning to grab her coat and purse. "I'm off to the club, lots of paperwork's been piling up."

"Bye, hon," Phoebe called out after her.

"I'm off to school," Paige announced. "Thank heavens they opened up a real daycare there, 'cause that elf-nanny was working my last nerve." She orbed out with her nephews, leaving Phoebe alone in the kitchen.

The middle sister looked around, and began clearing the dishes off the table, loading them into the dishwasher. Half an hour later, when the entire kitchen sparkled almost to Piper's standards, Phoebe sighed. "OK, enough procrastinating," she thought to herself. Slowly, she walked to the stairs and up to the attic. Standing in front of the Book of Shadows, she spoke aloud.

"What happened? How could I have been so wrong? That was my most powerful vision. I've never experienced emotion that strong with any other premonition. How is it that future me had no idea what the Avatars were really doing?"

Movement caught her eye, and she glanced down to see that the pages of the Book were flipping of their own accord. When the pages finally stilled, she was surprised to see a spell she'd never noticed before: For Seekers of Truth.

The entry warned that this was a one-time-use spell, which should only be used by one who sought understanding of a particular issue: not power, not revenge, not an explanation of fate, but the truth of a matter that was currently clouded. "One-time-use? Maybe I should show it to Piper and Paige, see if they want to find a different truth...But the Book opened to this page on its own. Which means that Grams or someone wanted me to find this spell. So I might as well do it."

* * *

Phoebe cleared space in the crowded attic and lit candles. She sat down, as the Book entry recommended, then recited the spell.

_Darkness clouds my inner eye_

_Show the real truth now to me_

_Let me know the reason why_

_Grant me total clarity._

Her body slumped backward as she was thrown into a premonition. Herself, and Piper and Leo, in the attic with the Seer. "So it's a post-monition," she thought absurdly.

"I can't tell you," the Seer was saying. "But...I can show you." Phoebe watched herself put her hands in the Seer's, and knew she was about to receive the premonition of Utopia. Piper, Leo, and the Seer were all staring, transfixed, at her past self. On her face, so briefly that only she herself could recognize it, a look of horror began to dawn. "Horror?" thought Phoebe. "But Utopia was beautiful, serene." But as she watched, Alpha flared in behind the Seer, and started chanting softly. Immediately, a peaceful smile replaced the horrified expression that hadn't even fully appeared on her face.

"Wait, what are you doing here? What did you do?" Phoebe cried out. Alpha ignored her, oblivious to her presence. "No, no, go back, I have to hear what he said," she whispered urgently.

Her vision, obligingly, rewound a bit, stopping just before Alpha appeared. She moved closer to where he would be standing, ignoring everyone else in the attic. He flared in, and this time, Phoebe was able to hear him.

"Only what I show you will you see. Calm, peaceful, your daughter, your nephews. Mommy, Mommy, Chris was scaring me about the demons again. Chris, it's not nice to tease. Ladybug, what did I tell you about the demons, they don't exist anymore, not since the Avatars." He chanted all of this dispassionately, and Phoebe gasped as she recognized the words from her premonition.

Phoebe's eyes flew open. "No! But...how can that be? He...he _changed_ my premonition? What was it supposed to be?" She looked at the Book of Shadows, as if expecting it to answer. "That's not enough! What was my vision supposed to have been?" But as she glared accusingly at the Book, she saw the entry she'd been reading erase itself, until she was left staring at a blank page.


	2. Dystopia Chapter 2

AN: shockingly enough, I still don't own Charmed.

Thanks for the reviews, I appreciate them. Sara Wolfe, I didn't know/remember that Magic School had daycare. I just wasn't letting that Elf woman anywhere near my story...

* * *

"So, wait you think one of the Avatars messed with the premonition the Seer gave you?" Piper asked. 

"Yes, I'm sure of it," Phoebe answered.

"But...why?" Paige asked the obvious question that was plaguing all of them.

"I don't know," Phoebe said. "I guess they realized that if we knew the truth, we'd never help them."

"But then why did the Seer make it sound like Paradise?" Piper wondered aloud.

"Maybe...maybe she knew the Avatars were listening in, so she couldn't tell us what would happen, but she wanted me to see it, so we could prevent it? I don't know, it's all kind of confusing."

"Ya got that right," Paige agreed. "So what are we going to do now?"

"Well..." Phoebe trailed off.

"Well, what? C'mon, Pheebs, spill it," Piper retorted.

"Well," Phoebe began again, "we need to know if the Avatars realized how horrific their future really would have been. And the only way to find out, is to ask an Avatar."

"But it's not like they're going to come at our beck and call, y'know," Paige pointed out. "We did kind of renege on them."

Phoebe nodded. "But there is one who will come at our beck and call, actually." She glanced meaningfully at Piper.

"Leo? You think LEO knew the truth and didn't tell us?" Piper asked incredulously.

"No! I mean, well, no, I don't think he knew. But maybe the Avatar collective knew. And he should still be connected to them, the Elders never stripped him of his Avatar status. So if he lets me, I should be able to tap into that..."

Piper took a deep breath. "Every instinct is telling me to say no, because it sounds to me like you're doubting my husband. But I know that we need to find this out, so...OK."

* * *

"I told you, all I knew about the Avatars' Utopia was what they showed me. I didn't know it was going to eliminate free will!" 

"I know, Leo. I just want to see if all the other Avatars knew what was really going to happen, or if it was just Alpha, or what. I want to know why they tricked us, why Alpha changed my vision," Phoebe explained again.

"Alright, fine, what exactly are you going to do?" Leo demanded.

Phoebe sighed, having been over this several times already. "You should still be connected to them. I want to see if I can tap into the Avatars' power, and maybe get a premonition well, a postmonition of who knew what, and what they were really trying to do. And if I can, I want to share the vision with Piper and Paige, so we can figure things out together."

After a long pause, Leo finally nodded. The sisters set up candles, and Phoebe and Leo sat facing each other, holding hands. Piper's right hand was atop Phoebe's right hand, which held Leo's left hand; Piper's other arm was around Phoebe's waist. Paige was in a similar position to Phoebe's left. The sisters recited the spell they'd written:

_Let us see what others knew_

_Bring the vision near from far_

_With these words, we tap into_

_The bond with every Avatar._

All three sisters' bodies slumped forward simultaneously. Leo watched them fall, afraid to let go of any of their hands, lest the bond break.


	3. Dystopia Chapter 3

AN: I know the chapters are short, but it's either a short chapter every few days, or a long one every few weeks. Hope you enjoy. Blah, blah, blah, these characters aren't mine, etc.

* * *

Piper, Paige, and Phoebe found themselves in a cavernous black space. There was a floor, clearly, since they were able to stand, but there appeared to be no walls, no ceiling, no doors...no features.

"Where are we?" Paige whispered.

"Like I know," Piper thought to herself.

"Hey! I heard that!" Paige hissed.

"You " Piper started to say. She stopped, and _thought_ at her sisters, "You can hear me?"

The other two nodded, surprised.

"Good," Phoebe thought in response. "I think we're somewhere in the Avatar 'collective consciousness.' The less attention we draw to ourselves, the better."

They stood still, conferring. "Why don't you see if you can get a premonition?" Paige suggested. "That was the whole point of this, right?"

Phoebe agreed. She held her sisters' hands, closed her eyes, and focused. The power surrounding them was evident, and in a moment, she and her sisters were hurtled into a vision.

They saw a seedy-looking biker bar. Two burly men with guns came in the bar, and demanded that everyone hand over their wallets and valuables. They shot the bartender, A biker near the bartender started running toward the end of the bar. The sisters watched in horror as one of the robbers shot at him, but missed. The bullet went through the back of some guy sitting calmly at the bar, but the sisters were stunned to see the wound disappear as quickly as it had appeared, leaving behind only a shattered shot glass. The guy got up and turned around. None of the sisters could believe their eyes. Phoebe was speechless as Paige and Piper whispered in unison, "Cole?"


	4. Dystopia Chapter 4

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AN: Thanks for the reviews...hope you're finding this at least mildly interesting.

* * *

Everyone else in the bar fled. The sisters watched, frozen, as Cole used his demonic powers to fling the robbers into opposite walls, finally killing each of them with a fireball. Then Cole let out an unearthly wail. Phoebe didn't notice she was shaking until she felt her sisters steady her.

Without warning, Alpha smeared into the bar. With him was another man, presumably another Avatar, one the sisters had never seen before. "We've been waiting for this moment," one of them said to Cole.

The vision changed, and Phoebe recognized Cole's apartment overlooking the city. The sisters had no time to wonder at the change in their surroundings, as the Avatars smeared in again to talk to Cole. They explained that they were "the Avatars of Force and Power," and they asked Cole to join them. Cole's immediate response was, "I'll never turn evil again."

Phoebe wondered if it were possible to faint in a postmonition, inside a collective consciousness, and what the heck that would mean.

The Avatars explained, "We don't have to choose between good and evil. We can drive them both."

The sisters glanced at each other, thoughts overlapping. "But they said they were beyond good and evil. 'Drive them both'? What does that mean?"

Cole tried to vanquish the Avatars, but the fireballs he threw at them simply faded out, having no effect and leaving no trace.

The vision changed again. They were still in Cole's apartment, but it was clearly a different day. Cole announced to Alpha, "I'm willing to become one of your kind."

Alpha explained, "We have the power to elevate powers such as yours, to raise them above the restraints of good and evil." He cautioned Cole that these unlimited powers were to be used with the other Avatars' powers, to shape the future which would be entirely controlled by the Avatars themselves.

Cole asked if, with those powers, he could affect time and even reality. Alpha assured him that he could. Cole knelt on the floor as Alpha chanted some sort of spell, extending a beam of light from his hand into Cole's head. When the initiation was finished, Cole stood up, looking energized. Alpha attempted to escort Cole out of his apartment, but Cole announced, "First, I get my wife back, once and for all."

* * *

The sisters found themselves back in the attic. Leo quickly attended to them, trying to make sense of their mutterings. 

"So _that's_ how he reset time and everything," Paige murmurred.

Piper commented, "I know you've explained what happened, and how we vanquished him in some sort of alternate timeline or reality or something, but it never quite made sense. But I guess if he was an Avatar, changing reality wouldn't have been a problem."

Phoebe whimpered.

Her sisters immediately turned to her, concerned. "Pheebs? Honey, it's gonna be OK."

"We vanquished him. Paige told us we vanquished him. Why did we see this? What does this have to do with Utopia?"

A voice from behind them said softly, but loudly enough to be heard, "Everything."


	5. Dystopia Chapter 5

AN: Alright, I think this is it. Hope you enjoyed. If you want more, you're going to have to leave me some ideas in your reviews, 'cause my Muse has apparently checked out.

* * *

"I'm dreaming," Phoebe thought to herself. "I'm dreaming, well, I'm in a nightmare, but this isn't real, this can't be real, he can't be real, he isn't real, that wasn't his voice..."

"First time you're hearing me speak to you in over two years, and you won't even turn around, Phoebe?"

She was frozen, rooted to the floor, a statue unable to move, yet she was turning around, and she forcibly dragged her gaze from the floor up to his face, and met his eyes, and "Oh, those eyes," she thought...

"Phoebe."

"Cole," she breathed. In that name, a thousand possibilities, a thousand hopes and dreams and promises and betrayals.

"You didn't vanquish me, Phoebe. Only Paige could have. Only Paige was left from the timeline in which I'd been an Avatar. Only her magic would've been strong enough to vanquish me. You were from my timeline, you'd never known me as an Avatar. Since you were the one who threw the potion, it couldn't vanquish me. It just weakened me, temporarily. But I knew Paige needed to be convinced I'd been vanquished, so I reset the time line, and she convinced you."

Behind them, Piper gasped and Paige cursed.

"But Utopia?"

"Your daughter, in your vision...surely you recognized my eyes, Phoebe. Anyone who saw her and knew me could have told you, she had my eyes."

Phoebe's voice shook, despite her efforts to keep it steady. "So you were the one who wanted to create Utopia?"

"For you, Phoebe. It was always for you," he answered softly.

"Potion!" Paige whispered, and a two-year-old frozen vial orbed from the freezer into her hand. Leo, understanding, waved a hand over it to thaw the potion inside.

Phoebe heard Paige's voice inside her mind. "We _have _to vanquish him, Phoebe. You know that."

Piper's voice: "We'll need the power of three. Are you ready?"

"Yes," Phoebe thought in response. "Paige, can you orb the crystals in place? They might not hold him, but it's worth a try."

"On it," Paige answered. "_Crystals!"_

As the crystals moved to surround Cole, Phoebe stepped back.

The crystal cage flared up, and Cole cried out with the same unearthly wail they'd heard in Phoebe's vision.

Paige tossed the vial into the crystal cage, and all three of the sisters began reciting,

_Prudence, Penelope, Patricia, Melinda_

_Astrid, Helena, Laura, and Grace_

_Halliwell witches, stand strong beside us_

_Vanquish this evil from time and space._

A wind whirled inside the crystal cage, almost loud enough to drown out Cole's anguished scream. Almost. Then an explosion, hurtling the sisters and Leo several feet backwards, and blowing out all the windows in the attic. And then, silence.

A few long moments passed, in that silence. Finally, Phoebe spoke. "Is it over? I mean, really over?"

"I think so," Piper answered.

"Good," Phoebe said, She took a few steps toward the door before collapsing into sobs. Her sisters gathered around her, trying to offer comfort. "My baby," was all Phoebe could say. "My baby girl..."


End file.
